Oscar nominations — two new milestones

The Academy has spoken, and while I haven’t had a chance to check out any of the other commentaries out there yet, I did want to note one or two things.

Fanboys may be disappointed that neither The Dark Knight nor WALL•E were nominated for Best Picture. But eight nominations for a superhero movie, and six for an animated film, are certainly nothing to sneeze at. They might even represent new milestones.

Re: superhero movies. Superman (1978) had three nominations, in addition to a special achievement award, and all of its sequels and spin-offs were ignored, with the exception of a single nomination for SupermanReturns (2006). The first three Batman (1989-1995) films had between one and three nominations each, and Batman Begins (2005) had just one, for cinematography. None of the X-Men (2000-2006) movies were ever nominated, and only the first two Spider-Man (2002-2004) films received any nominations: two for the first film, three for the second. I’d be surprised if any of the other, lesser-regarded comic-book franchises have done any better. So the eight nominations for The Dark Knight — including the supporting-actor nod for Heath Ledger — represent a real breakthrough, in that sense.

Re: animated films. Last year, Ratatouille (2007) was nominated for five awards, which as far as I can tell was sort of a record, but sort of not. Prior to that, Beauty and the Beast (1991) had six nominations — but three of them were in the same category, so it was never eligible for more than four awards that year. WALL•E settles the matter by having six nominations in six different categories, and thus becoming probably the first animated film that has ever had the potential to win up to six Oscars.

I’m sure other thoughts will occur to me over the next few weeks. In the meantime, here are the films that have been nominated for Oscars, ranked from those with the most nominations to those with only one. The titles of those I have seen are in bold:

good analysis and recognition of the honor wall-e and the dark knight have both received.

today’s alawys a fun day

http://www.blogger.com/profile/05192245958769676651 P. Little

I alluded to this in my ShowbizMonkeys.com Oscar nominees post, but you definitely took the “positive” side while I played it more as a negative. And you’re actually right — it is a breakthrough, and should be applauded.

But at the same time, if a movie is reviewed SO HIGHLY, like both WALL•E and The Dark Knight were, shouldn’t that be noted by the top dog of movie awards? Personally, I loved Benjamin Button, but a lot of people didn’t. There aren’t too many who’d say the same about WALL•E